NHRA: Richmond NHRA Chevy Friday Notes
24 April 1998
CHEVROLET NOTES AND QUOTES -- PENNZOIL NATIONALSVirginia Motorsports Park -- Richmond, Va. -- Friday, April 24, 1998
FUNNY CAR
CHUCK ETCHELLS, KENDALL/MAMA ROSA'S PIZZA/SUPERWINCH CAMARO Z28, is No. 3 qualifier, 5.021/307.27.
ETCHELLS: ON HIS SOLID RUN: "That was excellent. We've been hurting the cylinder heads and pistons the last three or four races. But after this run the motor looks brand new. The "general" (co-crew chief Tim Richards) knows how to tune it now. It was absolutely a turtle at the starting line. That would have been a 4.95 (elapsed time). At 60 feet we did a .930. If it were an .890 it would have run a 4.94 or 4.95. I think he knows how to do that."
RON CAPPS, COPENHAGEN CAMARO Z28, is No. 10 qualifier, 5.189/238.09 (his e.t. from the first run today). In the second pass he shut off midway down the track.
CAPPS: "My neck strap broke. We had problems in the first run with the Camaro. We damaged the body and it banged the blower pretty hard. Roland (Leong, crew chief) made a fuel tank switch after our race in Rockingham after we ran a 4.89. So we went back to the old setup that we had on it. Roland was going to have me run up half track in the left lane to see if it fixed the problem. After we saw a few cars go down the left lane he said he would leave it up to my discretion. He said if it puts any cylinders out go ahead and lift. The Camaro launched great, and I said 'ok baby, here we go -- low e.t.' Then the neck strap broke, that pinned my head back against the cage, I was looking straight up at the Chevy bow tie inside the roof. I had an .878 60-ft. time, that's by far the quickest Funny Car 60-foot (time). I think we've run the quickest Funny Car 60-ft. times in the past. But I couldn't see a thing, so I shut it off. It's an omen. If that had happened on Sunday I would have been in deep trouble. It would have cost us valuable points. We have a low e.t. car and I think we can do it tomorrow during the day. We will just take it up there and make another run."
PRO STOCK
KURT JOHNSON, ACDELCO CAMARO Z28, is No. 2 qualifier (6.931/198.19). Kurt held on to the No. 1 for nearly the entire second qualifying session. It was the last car that made a pass that bumped him out of top spot (Barry Grant with a 6.926/197.97).
KURT: "That was the way my luck has been going the last three races. I thought I had the money, and then it was gone. I got closer, but what are we going to do to change our luck? We just have to get working. We're getting close, we have to get that extra half inch. You never know what tomorrow will bring. We're the fourth pair in the morning session, the left lane is a little rougher. We will have a shot at it. We want that trophy at the end of Sunday, that's what really matters." ON THE GOOD AIR TONIGHT: "The track got 24 degrees cooler from this morning until this afternoon and the air corrected altitude was about 400 feet better. There was more in the race track than there was in the increase in performance because of the air."
LARRY MORGAN, RAYBESTOS CAMARO Z28, ran his best pass of the year since he switched to a Camaro, 6.950/197.49, good for No. 6 qualifying spot.
MORGAN: "We're excited, believe me. We just got control of the car. That's been our problem all year. It's not that we didn't have the power, we had the power all year. I am just real pleased. There's probably a couple of hundredths left in there. Now my goal is to get the Z28 into the winner's circle. I think our biggest problem has been adapting to the tracks. I don't know if our power band is peaky, it's just hard to control our power ban. Warren Johnson went through that same thing years ago. I believe we're seeing some of that now. We're just not prepared to take care of it. But we're learning real quick about how to do it. This is the same motor. We haven't had it apart for three races.."
